February 21, 2008	Thursday	Safar 13, 1429

QUETTA, Feb 20: Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch, who contested for the NA 271-Kharan-Washuk-Panjgur accused polling officers of tampering with the vote-count, engineering his defeat, and has appealed to the Chief Election Commissioner for justice.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Mr Baloch claimed that he had contested the elections to be able to play the role of a conciliator between the Baloch political leadership and the government to resolve the Balochistan issue through dialogue.

He said he had won the election but the polling officers in Jangyan and Shugeri tampered with the results in favour of his closest rival, turning his victory into defeat by a margin of 500 votes.

He showed the result sheets issued by the polling officers of Jangyan and Shugeri to newsmen, adding that the district nazim and the district administration in violation of the directives of the Chief Election Commissioner were involved in rigging.

Mr Baloch also alleged that the returning officer had withheld the announcement of the results of his constituency till 5 pm on Tuesday to complete the rigging process in favour of the PML-Q candidate.

He strongly criticised intelligence agencies for interfering in the political affairs of the country.

He said that President Musharraf did not like the views he had expressed about denial of rights to the Baloch people.

He said he would also file a petition in the court against the tampering of election results.